Indies at the Beach: Discussing Indie Media, Creative and AI Issues

Two panels of indie reps took to the stage at LBB Beach to talk about issues facing the indie agency world on Tuesday afternoon at Cannes.

The first found moderator Julian Boulding from thenetworkone chatting with Joan’s Jaime Robinson, Kamran Asghar from Crossmedia, Markus Krzastek from VaynerMedia, Barby K. Siegel from Zeno Group, and Ian Forrester from Daivid about “Creative & Media: Together Again, at Last?”

Boulding went over how media and creative lived together for a while, then separated during the ’80s and ‘90s and are only now finding their ways back together. 

Robinson and Asghar proved a solid case study on the matter, as the two agencies worked together on a few projects until they finally made it official.

“We felt it was important that creative should show up with media,” said Asghar.

Robinson added that their venture, JoanXMedia, was formed after the successes had with their Crossmedia collaborations.

The panel discussed how independent agencies need to disrupt the norm when it comes to creative and media, and that there should be two methods to enter into campaigns—creative ideas leading how media is bought, or finding how to tailor creative for a successful media plan. 

Krzastek stressed the importance of breaking down the walls between media and creative worlds to create better success for the campaigns as the strategies are built together. The creative process needs to be closer to the media process to make it work, he said, and noted that the VaynerMedia team has been working closely with the in-house team at Pepsi in that very manner.

Forrester stated that we are “swimming in data,” but none is speaking to the creative itself. “Yes, you can test creative, but it’s slow ad very expensive,” he said, adding that better understanding data will help Indies be able to test and scale campaigns.

Is AI helping or hindering?

AI is, of course, on everyone’s mind lately, and the discussions at Cannes are swirling around, with every sentiment on the table, from doom and gloom to a newfound energy. The second panel of the day was “Creativity: Fast & Slow,” and featured Fern Miller from Uncharted London moderating, with Steve Erich from Erich & Kallman, Franziska Gregor from Serviceplan Culture, Michael Nyman from Acceleration Community of Corporations, Meghan Mullen from Zulu Alpha Kilo New York, and Robin Bonn from Co:definery.

The panel discussed how AI has made us faster, but Erich pointed out that we need to take time to slow down and not let technology get ahead of us.

Erich said that AI is helping to differentiate against the competitors, but that only happens as long as you have humans involved. 

“It’s easier to do level tasks with AI, it’s faster and more efficient,” said Erich, but as AI takes on those tasks, he fears that young people just getting into the industry looking to land their first jobs may get squeezed out because AI has taken what used to be the work of junior talent. How will they train up and get experience? he asked.

That query was answered by Mullen and others, who noted that junior talent will need to come in trained in AI skills, and that people are already being hired in positions like AI Prompter rather than traditional copywriting.

“We hire people who are great about coming up with great ideas in culture. Job descriptions are changing. We need people who understand how to be creative outside the box and use AI,” said Gregor.

Gregor countered that by stating that cultural marketing is about interacting with communities, so AI can’t take that job. Culture agencies have to search within the communities they represent for the leaders, find out how they’re talking and what their needs are. 

“Most projects coming in now are for experiences. We’re trying to go back to real life,” said Gregor.

Erich noted that, thankfully, AI has not mastered humor, so the human touch will always be needed in advertising to get to humorous observations and nuances. 

The full session was at Little Black Book Beach in Cannes on Tuesday, June 17.